Quote: (12-14-2013 10:47 PM)cardguy Wrote:
Well let's back up a second.
The "catchall" theory doesn't explain why cannabis became illegal in the first place. But it might explain why it has stayed illegal, and why lawmakers are worried about making it legal?
Once the demand for drugs has been created - it won't disappear overnight.
Also - it seems possible that cannabis dealers will transtion into pushing 'harder' drugs instead - if cannabis becomes legal.
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Just throwing it out there. I don't care either way. I don't like cannabis. But I don't mind other people using it.
The war on drugs was not about making drugs illegal. It was about stepping up enforcement which effected the underground market. There was no market for marijuana because the people who smoked it just bought it from people who grew it. You could get cocaine from your pharmacist, even though it was illegal, because there was no real consequence to him for selling it to you.
Enter the congressional drug act of 1970, and now all of a sudden legitimate people can no longer operate in the drug game. A much more vicious form of entrepreneur enters the game, with an eye on not just supplying the market but expanding it by radically increasing the number of addicts. Not just selling dope, but pushing it into poorer areas.